I'm not anticipating one, but I suppose it could in part come down to where they are with Hill and Wood. Just generally I continue to figure they'll make the B- and C-tier moves, around their own flexibility

Jack

9:09

Will both American League Wild Cards come from the East again this year?

Jeff Sullivan

9:09

That's my operating assumption, although the Mariners could make a valiant attempt at prevention

Stuafoo

9:09

Why does yovanni gallardo still have a job? I realize the Ms are in need of a human meat shield or two to suck up some innings, but a guy like andrew moore has to be a better option

Jeff Sullivan

9:10

They're in no position to turn down innings at this point. Gallardo is basically an MLB #6, but they're missing a lot of 1-through-5

9:11

If and when healthy pitchers return, Gallardo is likely to be on the outs

9:11

Which is actually kind of a shame given that he's shown a significant velocity bounceback. He's up something like three ticks! Three ticks!

Dion Phanooooof

9:11

How do think the Rockies are likely to split playing time when David Dahl returns? If story continues to struggle do you think Desmond gets any starts at SS?

Jeff Sullivan

9:11

Last I heard, Dahl's rehab process had stalled

9:11

That was a few days ago

9:12

Soooooooo nothing to worry about any time soon. Dahl seems like he's still a long ways off. And if he does get back, chances are someone else will be injured or struggling

So while I can't predict how the draft would look without doing a lot of background work, I wouldn't be surprised if the first pick came from one of the very deepest organizations, like the Cubs/Dodgers

9:18

You know how the Cubs look. They're more than 15 quality players deep

Tj

9:19

What does a 2018 CC Sabathia free agent contract look like? I can't wrap my head around it

Jeff Sullivan

9:21

He'll be 37 years old, and very obviously that's going to work against him. A few years back Bartolo Colon signed that deal for 2 years and $20 million. Wouldn't be shocked if Sabathia wound up with something similar, albeit maybe higher in salary since he's younger and coming from a very tough division

9:21

It's a virtual impossibility he gets 3+ years, and teams will also limit themselves given that Sabathia probably won't be thought of as a guy you want starting in the playoffs

Chaps

9:21

Have there been any studies indicating a relation between a pitcher's pitch type & speed to a batter's exit speed & trajectory, or is it widely understood that there's no strong correlation between the two?

Jeff Sullivan

9:22

Just in general, there's a very weak relationship between pitch speed and exit velocity. Pitchers "providing the power" is mostly a myth

9:22

As for speed and trajectory, though, you can probably use your imagination. Sinkers get low launch angles. Four-seamers get high launch angles

Baryolo Cologne

9:24

Do you think we'll see a breakout from Castellanos coming? All of the underlying seem to assume its coming...

Jeff Sullivan

9:24

He is much better than his current 90 wRC+

9:25

My favorite thing about him is that he basically never pops up

9:25

I'm not convinced he has the approach to become an elite-level slugger, but he should be comfortably better than average

weezy

9:26

finding this chat was harder than expected on the new layout!

Jeff Sullivan

9:26

For me, too!

Matt

9:27

Just looking at Odor's periphs. Everything is in line with last year - K%, BB%, GB%, FB%, etc. ONLY difference is IFFB% and it's massive. Is there some buy-low opportunity there? Can he turn it around this year, or is he just swinging super hard and not going to stop?

Jeff Sullivan

9:28

No, he's a lot better than this. I never loved Odor because of his approach, but he's good enough to be something like an average hitter. When he's going bad, he looks terrible, but he's going to have a much improved second half